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Part 4 of Gradual
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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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2020-11-05
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2,395
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Gradual Courage

Summary:

SUMMARY: Xander and Larry's double-date with Carl and Bev turns Hellmouthy at the end.
SERIES: follows "Gradual Epiphany", "Gradual Belief" and "Gradual Realization"

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:



Gradual Courage
by Scorpio

 

Larry held the door from the bowling alley into the parking lot open as first Bev and then Carl walked through laughing. Then with a swirl of air, Xander was walking through, his long fingered warm hands trailing lightly across Larry's arm in silent thanks. Grinning even wider, Larry suppressed a shiver of delight at that light touch and followed his date out into the parking lot.

Larry had to bite back the urge to crow in exultant triumph at that last thought. Xander Harris, his long time crush, was out on a real live date. With him. A quick glance showed him that the three other's were caught up in some joke Xander had just told so he indulged in a short little dance of glee. And truthfully, tonight had gone better than he had thought it would. From afar Xander was great, but up close and in person he was amazing. He had this wonderfully sarcastic sense of humor that had charmed both Carl and Bev firmly into his camp and Larry knew without a doubt that both of them would have his back if anyone at school gave Xander shit about dating a guy...and not just because they were his own friends.

The best thing, in Larry's opinion at least, was how Xander would flip-flop between bold flirting and then shy blushes when he realized what he was doing. It was almost painfully cute to watch Xander's big dark eyes get even wider when he suddenly noticed that he had flirtingly invited Larry to sit down next to him during their snack break between games. Not to mention the way Xander's instant shock had melted into a shy blushing grin when Larry had reached out to hold his hand. It gave Larry a surge of hope combined with a sense of protectiveness when Xander had given a little squeak of surprise but didn't pull his hand away. Now that the date was over and Carl would be driving everyone home, Larry was looking forward to more hand-holding in the back of Carl's car.

"Ahhhh! Help me! Someon--"

They were halfway to the car when a cut off cry for help from the alley between the bowling alley and the closed shoe store yanked Larry out of his Xander-worship. He turned toward the sound and he saw out of the corner of his eye that Carl had stepped in front of Bev to act as some sort of human shield, but it wasn't until he noticed that after a few seconds pause Xander had started to run towards the scream that his heart skipped a beat. A blast of panic induced worry combined with the earlier surge of protectiveness slammed into him in the form of pure adrenaline and Larry found himself running after Xander without thought.

"Larry! Xander! No!"

Larry didn't even bother to pause at Bev's cry for them to stop. Xander was still running for the alley and that meant that he had to go after him. Vaguely, he could hear Carl say, "Take the keys and get in the car. Whatever you do, don't follow us into the alley. If we aren't back in a few minutes, go get the cops," and then his friend's footsteps were echoing on the pavement as Carl ran after him and Xander. Larry didn't give a thought to whether Bev listened or not since Xander had already ducked into the alley and was out of Larry's sight.

He was running fast, almost too fast to make the turn into the alley so he reached out with one hand and the sound of it slapping against the brick was surprisingly loud as his body whipped around from the centrifugal force. With a harsh gasp and a quick jerking stumble, Larry forced himself to stop running because he simply didn't understand what he was seeing.

A girl was laying on the ground, her throat a bloody mess and she was crying softly and whimpering pathetically. Three large guys were surrounding Xander and then Xander punched one and the guy just exploded into a big. puff. of dust. Then there were two.

Carl came around the corner at that point and slammed into Larry's back with the full force that a high school linebacker in a panic can generate. With a cry of surprise and a grunt of pain, they both tumbled to the ground. Carl's weight crashing down on him crushed all of the air out of Larry's lungs and sent up a flare of pain from his ribs, but that seemed to be a far away and surreal fact since one of the two remaining guys had turned towards them and was stalking over to them. Larry's mind wanted to gibber in confused horror as he realized that the guy had glowing yellow eyes set under a heavy ridged brow and a grinning maw filled with bloody fangs.

"W...wh...what the *fuck* is that?!?!"

Carl's voice was hissed through a tight throat and Larry could only shake his head in denial and confusion. "No fuckin' clue. Get off me, man. Get off. Get off."

Larry winced and grunted in pain as Carl scrambled to get off of his back, but the other boy wasn't fast enough. Just as Larry was finally able to push himself up onto his hands and knees the...*thing* bent down and reached out with one clawed hand, it's leering face chuckling at him. Larry cringed back in horror as the scent of decay and blood washed over his face in a puff of cool air from it's laughter. Then the monster with the glowing yellow eyes stood up and dragged Larry's not inconsiderable weight with him as if he were a small child.

Larry whimpered and tried to pull free, but the thing was stronger than him. He could hear fighting in the background and he spared a thought to hope that Xander was faring better than him. Then two strong arms wrapped around him from behind and he could smell Carl's aftershave as his friend tried to pry him free of the monster. The thing just laughed harder and yanked them both towards it.

"Yum. Two meals for the price of one. And I bet you boys'll taste great, too."

Larry cringed back even as he lashed out with one foot to kick at the thing's legs. It almost stumbled as it finally let go of his arm. With a gasp of relief, Larry started to backpedal away. The thing scowled at him and a shiver of fear swept down Larry's spine for a long second and then all of the sudden, the thing exploded in a glittering cloud. Standing behind the drifting dust was Xander, a wooden knife type thing in one hand and a grimace of distaste on his handsome face.

"Stupid vampire. As *if* I'd just let him eat my date."

Then Xander looked up and a shy, almost abashed look flitted across his face. "Um..."

Larry just gapped at him and a dry voice in his head told him that he probably looked like an idiot, but he couldn't help it. A huge reservoir of relief was washing over him in waves big enough to drown in and his mind kept getting caught up on two separate but related ideas: monsters were real, and Xander had just saved his life.

"What?... What the hell *was* that thing? I mean...fangs and...and glowing eyes...and did I mention the fangs? Oh yes, and it. had. Fangs!"

Almost in a stunned daze, Larry turned his head to look over at a pale and shaky Carl who was pointing at the pile of dust between them and Xander that had, until a few seconds ago, indeed been a monster with glowing eyes and fan gs. Then, he looked up at Xander to see him give an expression that was half embarrassed and half wistful.

"Would you believe me if I told you it was a joke? A rehearsal for a play? And wow, what did you think of those special effects?"

A confused look passed over Carl's face for a second, but then the girl laying in a pile of trash whimpered in pain again and Carl pointed to her. "Sorry, Xan. But special effects for a play don't leave victims in alleys. You said *vampires*."

Xander's head whipped around to the girl and then he dashed over and knelt down next to her and began to check her out. He glanced up at them guiltily for a moment. "Um, yeah. I did. Vampires..." Then Xander sighed and seemed to deflate a bit before continuing. "Fine. Vampires are real. Demons are real. The monsters that go bump in the night really *do* want to eat you and this is a real vampire attack here."

"You're serious?"

Xander gestured for them to come closer and he pointed to the girl's neck. There were two separate wounds. Each wound consisted of two small punctures. "This is a bite mark from a vampire. And so is this one. I've...ah...seen them before."

Larry exchanged a glance with Carl. He could see that the other boy believed Xander, but was frightened by what he'd just learned. Larry could relate since he had the urge to grab Xander and his friend and just run away until everything in the world made sense again. Then Xander reached out and shook Carl by the shoulder.

"Go back into the bowling alley and tell them that they need to call an ambulance for her. I think she can make it if she gets medical attention. We'll...uh, we'll tell them that we heard her being attacked. Mugged or something. And when we entered the alley, the muggers ran off into the night."

Larry frowned at that, confused. "But it wasn't muggers?"

Xander sighed and nodded. "I know that and you know that, but how are we going to explain the truth? No one will believe us. I mean, would *you* have believed it if you hadn't seen it with your own eyes?"

Reaching up with one hand, Larry rubbed at his temples. Xander was right, he *wouldn't* have believed if he hadn't been grabbed by a vampire that was grinning at him with bloody fangs and glowing yellow eyes. Then, he nodded and nudged Carl. "Go on. I'll wait here with Xan. You also might want to check on Bev, let her know that we're all okay."

And that got Carl going. With a terse nod, his friend stood up and turned to jog back out of the alley. They both watched him go for a moment and then Larry turned back to face Xander. It was strange, but it was almost as if somehow in the past few moments, Xander had changed in his eyes along with the rest of the world. That dry voice in his head mentioned once again that Xander had saved his life and he smiled.

"So...vampires. Want to tell me about them? Like how you turned them into puffs of dust."

With a blushing grin, Xander reached into a back pocket and pulled out a small, sanded smooth stick of wood that had been sharpened to a point on one end. He held it up and looked at it for a second and then handed it over to Larry. Almost gently, Larry took it from him.

"It's a stake. A vamp can be dusted if you slam one of those into it's heart. Sunlight will make 'em burst into flames. They are also severely allergic to garlic and holy water. A little of those will hurt them by burning 'em but a whole lot will eventually dust 'em."

Larry studied the wooden stake for a long moment and then tried to hand it back, but Xander shook his head and gave him a bashful grin. "Naw, man. Keep it, I've got plenty more and it'll make me feel better if you carry one. That way the next time a vamp tries to grab you, then you can dust him yourself." Then Xander grimaced and looked sad. "I'm...ah, I'm sorry that this happened and that you ended up getting dragged into this whole mess. I mean, I know it's not easy to find out that the world isn't as safe and wholesome as you thought."

Larry looked down at the stake for a moment and then tucked it away in a pocket and leaned back against the brick wall and tried to keep the wellspring of panic and denial that wanted to well up in him pushed back. "So, uh...how did...um, how did you find out about...about vampires?"

A look of such aching sadness washed over Xander's face that for a second Larry wished that he could yank that question back and have not asked it, but he *needed* to know that or possibly just focus on something that wasn't so immediate as a girl bleeding on the ground between them and the memory of those glowing eyes staring back at him.

"oh, well"

And then Xander cleared his throat and spoke in a stronger voice. "Jesse. You, um...remember him?" At his quiet nod, Xander swallowed audibly and continued. "See, uh...Jesse was turned. Into a vampire, I mean. I sorta, well...I staked him. He was the first vampire that I ever...that I ever
dusted."

Then Larry was looking up into those haunted dark eyes and it hit him all at once that this boy...no, this *man* that he had been crushing on for years had a greater depth and sense of courage and righteousness than he'd ever known about. And suddenly, in between one heartbeat and the next, Larry fell head long in love. *Real* love, not just lusty crushy puppy-love. With a soft
sigh of sympathetic remorse for all of the pain that Xander couldn't keep from shining in his eyes, Larry reached out and twined their fingers together.

"I'm sorry, Xan."

Xander nodded and seemed to pull himself back together. "Yeah, me too." Then, a soft smile lifted one corner of Xander's full lips and he squeezed Larry's hand for a quick second, "Well, not about *everything*, anyway."

 

END: Gradual Courage

 

[scorpiofic@aol.com]
http://members.tripod.com/sentinel-cat/Scorpio

Notes:

This orphaned work was originally on Pejas WWOMB posted by author Scorpio.
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